The proportion of freely accessible journal articles published by scholars and scientists in Berlin has again increased markedly. As the Open Access Bureau Berlin and a team from various universities has determined, during the survey period of 2017, almost two fifths (38.5 percent) of the articles published by researchers at the universities, including the universities of applied sciences, in the state of Berlin were available through open access.

The proportion of such articles thus increased by 7.3 percentage points as compared with 2016. Of the 38.5 percent in 2017, roughly 18.7 percent were publications that were published in open access journals (gold open access), 13.4 percent were published in open access in addition to other journals (green open access), and 6.4 percent were published as an open access version in closed access journals (hybrid open access).

According to the authors of this survey, Berlin is well on its way to reaching its self-imposed target of publishing 60 percent of its academic publications in open access journals by 2020. This goal was set in the Open Access Strategy for Berlin adopted by the Berlin House of Representatives in 2015. This strategy aims to ensure that findings of research at public universities funded with taxpayers’ money are available not only for the scientific community, but also for the broader public, businesses, and associations.

Since 2016 Berlin has been publishing statewide figures about open access publishing of university findings. It is the first German state to do so and is thus a pioneer in Germany with regard to providing financial support for open access publishing at universities and cultural institutions as well as setting up an Open Access Bureau for the city-state. These measures are an indication of the city-state’s commitment to enabling open access to research findings and the cultural heritage.

The survey covered the nine institutions in the state of Berlin with the most research publications:

• Alice Salomon Hochschule (ASH)
• Berlin School of Economics and Law (HWR)
• Berlin University of the Arts (UdK)
• Beuth University of Applied Sciences Berlin
• Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
• Freie Universität Berlin
• Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin (HTW)
• Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU)
• Technische Universität Berlin (TU)

The report about open access publishing in Berlin can be viewed online.

Contact

Dr. Andreas Hübner, Open Access Bureau Berlin, Tel. +49 30 838 50244, Email: oabb@open-access-berlin.de